Teach-in at a university occupation

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What would you say about worker coops to students?

Hello to my fellow cooperators

If you were to talk for half hour about worker coops to students at Palestine-related university Occupation in a college that is about to sack 1/3 of its staff, what would you say?

I am considering if and how I could contribute. Any specific advise and wise thinking would be appreciated.

Thanks :smiley:
Tatiana

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For me, I wouldn’t go into too much detail about co-ops, the v&ps, history and all that. If it peaks there interest they will read about it. I’d focus on the main issues/frustrations they may have, and relate that back to how worker co-ops can help solve them, so stuff like:

  • lack of control and powerlessnesse Why do we think democracy in life is a good thing but democracy at work isn’t- Why do we put up with shit bossses?
  • Poverty and inequality Why are we happy that a lot of the wealth we generate through our own hard word goes to pay, investors and CEO’s . When you can set-up and own your own business
  • Popularism and nationalism Our movement is inherently globalist in nature we’re interested in oppressed workers and their families wherever they are. In anybody should be interested in the working classes it should be worker co-ops?

That my 10p I’m sure Sion will turn up with some good anarchist quotes and the like :smiley:

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Amazing Tatiana

I did something similar during the 2018 University strike. A group of us at Nottingham Uni wrote a strike zine, and I did a teach-in on worker coops. Here’s the zine: https://www.journalofculturaleconomy.org/JCE2022/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/demanding_the_impossible.pdf. My contribution is on page 18.

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I’d talk about how the value in any organisation (making stuff, delivering services) is usually being created by the workers and the value created is extracted by shareholder owners or managers (big salaries) with minimal rewards to the people who create the value.
I’d talk about how the workers normally know how best to get things done and can self-organise. That management hierarchies and bureacracy often get in the way of doing things well or efficiently, generally creating extra work for managers and are really expensive.
Worker co-ops are a way to organise work without bosses.

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In the past when i’ve done sessions about worker cooperatives I ask everyone to either in small groups or in a large group talk about a bad time they had or saw at work and how it made them feel. It normally gets conversation flowing and people hating their bosses :slight_smile:

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